Blue Jackets | Tortorella praises players' fortitude

Tuesday

Jan 9, 2018 at 10:23 PMJan 9, 2018 at 10:23 PM

Steve Gorten sgorten

TORONTO — Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella doesn’t dish out praise freely, so it was striking that he expressed appreciation for his players’ persistence three times after their stunning 3-2 overtime win Monday in Toronto.

Headed for their fourth shutout loss of the season, the Jackets instead overcame a two-goal deficit in the final five minutes of regulation to win — only the fourth time in franchise history they have won in that manner.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, they previously did so on Jan. 5, 2007, at Anaheim (4-3 win in regulation); Dec. 1, 2011, at Calgary (4-3, shootout); and March 22, 2016, at Philadelphia, by scoring twice in the final 64 seconds before beating the Flyers 3-2 in a shootout.

Monday night at Air Canada Centre, they scored two goals in a span of 1:48 to force overtime, in which Artemi Panarin popped in a pass from Zach Werenski at 3:11. The puck hit Panarin’s skate and then his stick, which a video review confirmed was a legal goal.

“That’s a good win for us as far as going through some of the crap we’ve been going through,” Tortorella said. “I really respect how they kept their head up and kept on playing.”

The “crap” Tortorella referenced includes losses in four of their previous six games, and the loss of three forwards — Cam Atkinson (foot), Alexander Wennberg (back), Brandon Dubinsky (facial fracture) — as well as defenseman Ryan Murray (upper body) for extended time because of injury.

The Blue Jackets absorbed another blow Monday when left wing Sonny Milano suffered an upper-body injury in the second period and didn’t return. But the team rallied for its second win in two nights.

Instead of a regulation loss that would have dropped them three points behind the Maple Leafs in the Eastern Conference standings, they woke up Tuesday, an off day for the team, tied with the Leafs and Bruins for third-most points (53) in the conference.

“Clawing our way back into this one was huge, just to put it into overtime, and then getting the ‘W’ in overtime was big for this group,” said forward Jordan Schroeder, who initially was credited with the Blue Jackets’ first goal at 15:25 of the third period, which was later given to Nick Foligno based on an apparent deflection.

“A real good, positive game that we can take a lot of good things away from,” Foligno said.

Added Tortorella: “We knew if we scored one, someway, somehow, that it changes the complexion. It changes momentum.”

Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky made 35 saves on Monday in Toronto after stopping 42 (and six of eight in the shootout) against the Florida Panthers on Sunday. Bobrovsky was “fantastic” in keeping the deficit at two goals so the Jackets could rally, Tortorella said.

“For the first half of the game, we did everything we wanted to do except score,” Tortorella said. “We find ourselves down 2-0 when I thought we were playing pretty well. I really appreciate and respect (that) our guys just stayed with it.

Pierre-Luc Dubois scored the tying goal from the slot with 2:47 left on a pass from Seth Jones — similar to the setup from Jones for his goal Sunday. He likened Monday’s comeback to the Panthers’ tying goal late in regulation, and the Blue Jackets’ response to that.

“It’s a big plus for the future of our team,” Panarin told BlueJackets.com. “The team knows now that we could be losing like that, but there is still a chance for a comeback, and it doesn’t matter how much time is left in the game.”

sgorten@dispatch.com

@sgorten

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